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Moscow's Red Alert - roundtable discussion

But precisely because of this i think it is essential to maintain a consistently critical attitude towards gorbachev, despite my great respect arkady: 'in five years' time power will be held by a coalition of social democrats and bourgeois circles' a r k a d y to stick my neck out, i think the country will have changed a great deal in five years' time. Do you think that the people are so conservative that they would support a 'conservative-communist' party led, say, by ligachev? a l e x a n d e r first, it would not be under the leadership of ligachev.

New Times - A Tale Of New Cities

Though some of its themes are clear - new forms of collective consumption, the emphasis on liveability and conviviality, the idea of an interdependent ecology of city life, of the city as a means of communication, and of the city as a potential defence against the volatilities of an overconnected world these still need to be fleshed out, experimented with and articulated. Pittsburgh in pennsylvania is often cited as the classic success story, a terminally run-down march 1989  'new forms of retailing are busting apart the ecology of the city centre' industrial city that used arts as part of a broader strategy of regeneration that resulted in it being voted the most liveable city in the whole usa.

National Anthems - interview with the Proclaimers

If many more people felt as clear headed and politicallycapable as we did that day, then surely things would change? a few days later, the dangers of letting scottish citizens discuss their own nationalism expressed at govan, as 'thinking with the blood'; the wavering-labour, pro-scottish, anti-tory citizen is either a childish dolt or an incipient fascist. stv's explicitly-titled discussion programme, scottish assembly, certainly provides what jean baudrillard would call 'simulation' of public opinion: 100 scots, market-researched by mori to reflect the class, educational and economic patterns of scottish society, who electronically vote three or four times a show on aspects of a main topic.

Literary Excavation Interview with Toni Morrison

pratibha parmar talked to her on her visit to britain to launch her novel, beloved the impetus for your latest novel, beloved, came from a real historical incident from the slave era, when margaret garner, an escaped slave, was forced into killing her daughter rather than see her being forced into the brutalities and mutilation of slavery. The real point is that to june and angela and all those people, there toni morrison: public tribute was something about what they were saying about honouring our own at a time when jimmy (james baldwin) had just died.

Family French Lessons interview with Marilyn French

The women's room legitimated women's experience and women's work and women's lives in a way that nothing else had done. Whether to have a baby or not, how your life is going to alter if you do have one, how you sacrifice yourself or are involved in that are still women's decisions as if women were totally responsible for the next generation and men were not.

1968 RETROSPECTIVE Feminists Remember their Past

I can remember beginning to argue with more and more confidence, that those attitudes hadn’t brought many women into socialist politics, and they hadn’t even in the past ten years brought many men there either  21 sunshine? '68 in the life of in angela lloyd gap a the first half of ‘68 was spent completing a degree in sociology — it was the end of a three year period of being socially and financially independent, of living closely and intensely with two women friends, of going through personal and intellectual crises of confidence. so finally, for me and thousands of other women, the most crucial and lasting were you consequence of may ‘68 was that it gave us the courage to help form the women’s movement and we could only conceive of that when we finally broke from the shibboleth of the socialist tradition that said the only work to be done by or about women was how to unite them to the working class struggle (from which they had been unfortunately absent) and that an autonomous women’s movement was either a diversion from the struggle or, worse, simply ‘bourgeois feminism’.

FROM TRIBAL KITCHEN SINK TO DISHWASHER

control of reproduction the concentration of the argument in terms of repro­ duction means that shulamith firestone believes that 'biology itself' is the cause of women’s oppression, (incidentally, she doesn’t really discuss the social nature of matriarchies; a situation in which one might well argue that in crucial ways women oppressed men before men oppressed women - a historical priority which could be rather embarrassing for radical feminist theory.) in terms of descriptive writing and analysis, the emphasis on women’s experience, on the subtle conditioning of children into sexist roles, shulamith firestone’s com­ ments on love (the ones referring to women, not men), and her remarks on the nature of the oppression of children, both in the way tneir oppression is similar to that of women and in the way that it is symptomatic of the agecompartmentalisation which also applies to the old, the sick, etc.; all these emphases have opened up important areas for a thorough analysis of the present nature of our society.

Who'll get Pleasure from Leisure?

The development of mtv, the music television service of the american cable network (co-owned by the record company wea) thus meant the emergence of a powerful new tool for record promotion (which led to the second british pop invasion of the u s charts) but it also entails the tailoring of record company decisions to tv demands - pop music becomes an aspect of video entertainment. It may be true that the rise of the video clip has returned pop power to the music industry's biggest capitalists (it is much more expensive to make a film than a record) but, by the same token, other technological changes have reduced the cost of control and thus opened up the possibilities of do-it-yourself recording, publishing and broadcasting (the explosion of pirate radio and even television stations all over europe is just as significant as the spread of cable).

LABOURING WOMEN - interview with Frances Morrell

Essentially jenkin is are involved in the labour party and women's action committee in  april 1985 fighting to extend working class women's representation in the party, and of course being accused of just being middle class and ambitious. We've always said in the women's action committee the central, defining point of the relationship between men and women, and that goes for the labour party too, is male power.

Taking men on at their Games

who founded the modern olympics in olympic sport was therefore, from the 1896 and was the most powerful member start, a contested zone, between men and of the central decision making authority of women who, like de coubertin, espoused the olympic games, the international dominant reactionary ideas about gender olympic committee (ioc) for over 30 divisions, and those men and women who years. As swimmers and divers, girls are beautiful and adroit, as they are ineffective and unpleasing on the track'.6 as presi- dent of the ioc in 1949, he again articulated the establishment position, 'i think women's events should be confined to those appropriate to women; swimming, tennis, figure skating and fencing, but certainly not shot-putting'.7 in 1966 the ioc attempted, unsuccessfully, to eliminate the women's shot-put and discus events because 'often the feminine self-image is badly mutilated when women perform in these two events'.

Taking Liberties - interview with Larry Gostin

an organisation like nccl, focusing upon civil liberties concepts  may 1984 needs to accentuate these civil liberties principles. once nccl decides it will never advise a group whose very existence is inimicable to civil liberties, then nccl has to start drawing lines about who it will and who it will not defend or advise.

The Age of Unemployment - roundtable discussion

this question of the unemployed workers centres takes us right back to the beginning of the discussion, to who the unemployed workers actually are, who identifies themselves as unemployed? the only people who see themselves as unemployed workers in my experience are white men who have been active in the trade union movement. the age of unemployment a roundtable discussion the participants in the roundtable are: sid clay, tuc organiser for the northern region; sue cooper, unemployed in birmingham and formerly a sogat convenor; tricia davis, co-ordinator of the birmingham trade union resource centre and communist party executive committee (cpec) member; steve hart, shop floor activist at ford and cpec member; roy rix, trade union liaison worker at a centre for the unemployed, and previously a gmbatu convenor in leeds.

The Face of Labour's Future

Do you believe that the labour party has yet managed to establish this idea in people's minds or indeed do you believe that the labour party has this idea itself? •  october 1984 marxism today 9 the thatcher government is trying to change the nature of british society by making it brutish and poverty-stricken materially, culturally and socially. To what extent do you think in planning for the future, the labour party is bearing in mind actual developments in both society and the economy, which may make even productive industry look very different to what it was 20 years ago? employment led, then we can not only diminish the labour force there is a temptation to counterpose the economy of the large by satisfactory means, but actually ensure that there is a variety of enterprise to the economy of multifarious small enterprises.

The Unions: caught on the ebb tide

does he not realise that trade unionists in his so called 'boom years' were having to delve deep into industrial and political theory, so they could better fight and win any given struggle and draw the proper lessons in order to win workers for further and wider struggles, just as many trade unionists are doing now, to cement the unity necessary to take the movement forward. The strategy of left unity has brought substantial gains; but the trade union movement is more than the simple total of left plus right wings, and we must not get into a position where the struggle for short term tactical gains for the left gets in the way of a principled look at what, in the long term, the whole movement needs.

Mother Wales, get off me back?

In a sequence of battles against non-unionism and unemployment which were epics and in a socialist internationalism vivid and alive during the spanish civil war and the era of the popular front, they and the people they mobilised saved south wales as a human community; their experience has become a myth as the labour party remorselessly entrenched itself in the south and moved outward into rural wales.7 as the people drew labour around them like some warm, rough blanket against the winds of the capitalist world, education in the control of labour councils tunnelled an escape route for three generations of young people out of the pits and into the n u t , 'overproducing' teachers, as wales had 'over-produced' printers and preachers before them, to make teaching the characteristic welsh profession. 3 a major new study of wales since 1880 is k o morgan, rebirth of a nation: wales 1880-1980 (university of wales and clarendon presses, 1981); a different approach in david smith, ed, a people and a proletariat; essays on welsh history 1780-1980 (pluto press and llafur, welsh labour history society, 1981).

The Drift to Law and Order

It sanctions the reduction of pressure on the prison system gives just as little ground notion, as thompson puts it, that 'if all law and all police are utterly on internal reform as did the home office under rees when the select abhorrent, then it cannot matter much what kind of law or what place 5 committee report to which the new white paper is a response was first the police are held within.' published in 1977. This is notably associated with james anderton, the hard-line chief constable of greater manchester, who informed tv viewers last year: 'i think that from the police point of view that my task in future, in the ten to fifteen years from now, the period during which i shall continue to serve, that basic crime as such — theft, burglary, even violent crime — will not be the predominant police feature.

Who Will Control North Sea Oil?

He said: 'mr benn, secretary of state for energy, and lord kearton went through the international energy industries like bonnie and clyde went through the southern states' banks in the early 1930s.' under the comprehensive 'petroleum and submarine pipelines act of july 1975' bnoc was given some of the following responsibilities: (i) to become an oilfield operator technologically and commercially competitive with other operators, the oil companies themselves, (ii) to become the 'third eye' of benn's department of energy, widi an advisory role on north sea projects, and a seat on the important technological committees, (iii) to take charge of some 51% of all the oil brought out of the north sea, paid for at current market prices. Four distinct interest groups can be demarcated within the political context of the north sea: (i) the oil companies themselves and their singleminded pursuit of profit, (ii) the 'free market' theorists of this tory government, (iii) a national interest, sympathetic to british control of british oil reserves, without favouring nationalisation for its own sake, (iv) a socialist-inspired grouping around bnoc, attempting to defend and extend state control over national reserves.

Eurocommunism CAN IT REGAIN THE INITIATIVE ?

in italy the socialists have felt threatened by being overtaken by the 'historic compromise' and psi's new leadership has exploited every possibility for an aggressive anti-communist polemic, both from the right — with the party leader craxi's substitution in 1978 of the old marxist tradition with proudhon, and then with the attempt in the summer of 1979 to form a government with the technocratic right wing of the christian democrats — and from the left through, among other things, contacts with the violent 'autonomist' student movement and through alliances with the radical party. eurocommunism: a response to the crisis of the 1947 system eurocommunism, and parallel developments such as the left orientation of the french and spanish socialist parties and the catholic trade unionist radicalisation in italy, can be seen as both delayed effects of and as a political answer to the sociopolitical crisis of the 1947 system.

, pp 19-20 The latest ridiculous

The crucial 20 it was always misleading to see rock as an established musical form, rather than an unstable integration of elements culled from prior traditions — rock & roll, soul music, blues, folk-song, country music, standard ballads, music-hall, jazz. speaking at a debate on tv4 intro­ the workers who would man the fourth duced by philip whitehead in the house television channel have themselves said of commons last wednesday, he firmly this: nuj, abs, fbu, nut, nus, kept to his old line; that he would not sogat, asmts, post office engineer­ agree to a public enquiry, but that the ing u nion and radio writers’ associa­ government, in making up its mind, was tion have all said ‘no’ to the ita’s taking into consideration all the possible attempts to get tv4.

Heroes for our times: Tommy Cooper

198  heroes for our times heroes, history and mourning eric santner's stranded objects: mourning, memory and film in postwar germany, offers a starting point for considering these questions concerning contemporary culture, heroes and their fascinations." Soundings issue 3 summer 1996 heroes for our times: tommy cooper susannah radstone susannah radstone explores the complex ways in which screen personas relate to the vicissitudes of historical and psychical life, taking as her focus the comedian tommy cooper and some recent film roles played by anthony hopkins.

The idea of a sexual community

n this article i want to look at four key elements contained in the idea of a sexual community: community as a focus of identity; community as ethos or repository of values; community as social capital; and community as politics. c community as ethos and repository of values mark blasius, in his recent book, gay and lesbian politics, has argued that the lesbian and gay struggle has produced a sense of community and identity which 76  the idea of a sexual community provides the context for moral agency, and hence for the emergence of a lesbian and gay ethos enacted in everyday life.

Albert Schweitzer and the Liberal Conscience

The new reasoner winter 1957-58 number 3 peter worsley albert schweitzer and the liberal conscience when i described albert schweitzer, in the new reasoner no. 1, as a " racially-prejudiced paternalist," some readers appear to have been surprised, particularly since schweitzer, just about that time, appealed to the world to give up the h-bomb race.  46 the new reasoner worsley: albert schweitzer and the liberal conscience is wife-purchase; that witchcraft is utterly irrational and the product of confused thinking; that africans worship 'fetishes'; that their disputes and litigation are only " barren argumentation " and " palaver "-rigmaroles; that african women are completely exploited by their menfolk; that africans have a "child-like" mentality: that they are absolutely unable to understand that anything can valuable, and so forth and so on — a thousand and one major and minor pieces of nonsense and misconception.

Writing the Obituaries: Interview with Patrick Wright

One of the things that i was most interested to discover while writing my last book, the village that died for england, was that throughout the twentieth century there is this tradition of people going out into the rural areas and trying to discover an england of 17  soundings connectedness: not of picturesque views, not of landscape reduced to a scenic resource for urban visitors, but an england of local vitality, which was still in touch with the traditions of the yeomanry and peasantry, with crafts and preenclosure land rights too. When i was working on my first book, on living in an old country, i came across all these forgotten inter-war books about the english countryside, published by companies like batsford - books about the old green roads of england in which people walked away from the cities and also from their memories of the 1914-18 war, and followed ancient tracks up onto the limestone, or the chalk downs which had such unique and consoling qualities for many of these early twentieth century hunters of rural virtue.

The Break-up of the Conservative Nation

If there had once been some territorial and political substance to the idea of the conservative nation, the invention of what has 18  the break-up of the conservative nation now come to he known as middle england was, from the start, of a different order: 90 per cent in the mind and 10 per cent the friction of discernible geographies. Its carefully fashioned 14  the break-up of the conservative nation democratic project, which underpinned the longuee duree of the conservative party as a competitor in the field of modern mass politics, has come to an end.

Heroines : Black Skin, Blue Eyes and Muslin

Heroines: black skin, blue Eyes and muslin Becky Hall Becky